


Servitude

by FairyDrink



Category: Hellsing
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 04:53:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1027450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyDrink/pseuds/FairyDrink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A vampire-hunting trip to Romania reshapes the basis of relationship between nineteenth year old Integra Hellsing and her vampire servant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I might need to rewrite this later, or change the title, depending on how it develops. I have had this story in mind for years, and I just wanted to get started. Hopefully I will add more chapters soon. The rating is for later chapters.

**Chapter One**

 

The swaying of trains was something that had always given her a sense of peace. When she was younger, she used to give herself the pleasure of falling asleep while accompanying her father in the very scarce vacations they were able to take together. He would often jokingly scold her for not ‘enjoying the view’, but she knew he really enjoyed those quiet times, as he would always take a train with her instead of the more comfortable, efficient planes that the government offered him.  She tried to concentrate on the rhythmical movement of the wagon, instead of wasting her time on useless memories. Integra Hellsing was not the kind of girl to delve into the past.  Damn, at nineteen years old she was hardly a girl at all. To be honest, she had not been a girl since she was twelve, nor  could she  remember feeling like one. She sighed in an attempt to clear her head and stretched out her legs. Despite having been given a well-sized seat, she could not hold her impatience to get out of the confined space. As soon as the heels of her boots scrapped the top of the trunk in front of her, she frowned. She still would not get used to this. That thing inside it was tapping against her feet rhythmically, as if playing to an imaginary song.  She sighed again. Walter’s suggestion of sending her on this trip had been some kind of twisted version of a vacation.  Everyone in that house was crazy.

         

The dust in the house seemed to never stop accumulating. Or maybe the mansion was just too big for him alone to be its sole duster.  Walter’s reticence to let others clean had always just been met with shrugging, as it were just one more eccentricity in the household.  Well, he was not lying. He really did find a strange pleasure in the monotonous activity of dusting every relic and shelve in the house, going through the same hallways day after day. He chuckled to himself at the thought that it was definitely an old man’s fancy. As he cleaned, he tried not to allow the uncertaintanty of the future to bother him. Pure treason had been unthinkable. He did love the girl he had helped raise, and he would have no hand in her undoing. But, if in the course of the mission that he had sent her to, the centuries-old vampire were to snap and become a threat.... well, then it would be different. Then his role as a faithful Hellsing butler would put him in direct confrontation with him, bringing back the Angel of Death without putting Millenium's plan in motion. He hoped it came to that, and not to a more overt form of treason.  Like the pieces of the house that he cleaned every day, he would patiently wait, and see.

 

Integra stepped out of the train followed by a couple of gentlemen that had offered to help with the trunk. The image of this young girl, covered in an ample jacket and with a look sterner than anyone else of her age, could have been shocking, but to be honest, they had received stranger visitors in that part of Romania. Attracted by thhe vampire legend, they had received enough freakly dressed, and acting, people that this person did not attract too much attention.

It was near sundown, and the Hellsing heir took the time to sit on one of the station’s benches, waiting for the light to be lower, and her companion to decide to come out of his slumber. He had made no attempt to get out before, which she was aware he could do, and it was probably for the better. She reached into her pocket for her case of cigars and a lighter, and tried to enjoy the fleeting time she could have in peace despite being surrounded by travelers.

Sooner than expected, she felt him behind her. “Good evening, Master. Did you have a pleasant journey?” His deep voice and overwhelming presence still gave her the chills. Not in a good way. She had spent most of her time after her father’s death at a boarding school, allowing Walter to manage Hellsing while she finished her education. Not that it had been too much fun anyway; most of her non-class time had been spent learning how to fight the undead, learning that had been complemented with hands-on experience during summers. Overall, her time with the vampire Alucard had been limited, and mostly supervised. She stood quickly and started walking towards the street to find a taxi. Her steps reverberated along the train station , followed by the heavier pace of his (at least he had had the decency to walk instead of just floating above the ground).

“My journey was alright. What about yours?” She flung her hand high in order to make one of the cars stop. Coming here without a full escort and without her own vehicles really had been a weird idea from the butler. As one stopped, her vampire hurried to open the door for her and took the trunk to the back of the car, another gesture that put her a little bit on edge. Of all that her father had taught her about these creatures, he was definitely a special case. As he sat besides her, he finally answered her question. “I slept through most of it. Nothing remarkable”.

Integra nodded and handed a paper with their destination on it to the driver. Better to be done this way; she did not speak a word of Romanian. Alucard, on the other hand, started talking to him.

She wondered for a moment if he sounded funny to the driver, as if a man had suddenly shown up to her speaking old English. She smiled to herself and looked at her side to find her companion looking through the window into the streets, absorbed in the scenery. “My, how do places change in some centuries...”

Oh, yes, this was home for him after all. As much as a vampire could understand such concepts. She cleared her throat and started reviewing the situation.

"Alucard, what do you think of this mission?"

He grinned in feigned surprise "Are you asking me, Master? I believe it is no place for a servant to give any opinions on his orders"

Integra sighed in exasperation, but decided not to play his game "Given that you are the most powerful weapon I posses, yes, I do want an opinion on this. It is rare for us to wonder this far into continental Europe"

Alucard laid back on the car seat "Mm, a small protestant church that wishes no intervention from either the Vatican or the Eastern Orthodox Church reaching out to the Hellsing organization... it seems like a desperate attempt to deal with this without submitting to a larger order"

"And of the victims?"

"Three young girls found drained in the fields in the last year. And farmers reporting that newborn babies have gone missing, but, since they had no time to register them before, the authorities have not gotten involved" he chuckled " To me, it looks like the messy job of a lower level vampire who has the luck to be in a remote location"

" I imagine you will deal with the target promptly"

" I am sure, my Master, that the Angel of Death would not have sent such a small party after this if he did not think it was an easy mission. Besides, " he turned to look at her, crimson eyes peering above his sunglasses " I believe that you are due to a small vacation already"

She sighed at the comment. A Hellsing heir did not have time for vacations, or friends.

The taxi came to a stop in front of a small church. An old man was waiting at the door, and after paying the driver and telling him to wait for a while, he gestured for them to walk inside. The place smelled musty, and Integra tried not to feel intimidated by being there alone.

“Miss Hellsing? Thank you for coming” the man looked questioningly at Alucard, who had taken to look at the various religious icons hanging on the walls of the small office.

“He is just here as an assistant, Father Ciobanu, please don’t mind him. I would like all the information on the situation that you have before we deal with it”.

The man smiled softly at her. He had never seen such a young lady act this serious and determined. He felt sorry for her. “Yes, of course” he handed her a folder “I have put all the cases here. Since there are no police reports, I thought that compiling them myself would help”

She quickly scanned the pages and sighed in disappointment “This will take a while to go through...”

“I was not expecting you to get right into it after such a long trip anyway” the old man sat down again, wearily “The attacks tend to be far in between. Use this night to become acquainted with the case and perhaps we will be able to stop them before the new attack”

Integra was not used to waiting, nor to be given advice, but she had little else to do in this situation. She wished him good night and took the taxi to her hotel with Alucard by her side, who had grown increasingly somber.

 

“I am not happy with staying here idly. It is a waste of time” she muttered, as she set her luggage down by her bed. Alucard smiled down at her

“I think Walter would agree that your are in much need for rest after the long trip. I will make sure that no attacks happen tonight. If that priest is correct, they are laying low for now”

She stared deep into his eyes, trying to decipher what his take on the situation was “Do you trust him?”

“That is of little importance. Even if he attempted something, his fingers would be gone before he could ever lay one of them on my Master”

She felt a chill at those words. All these years, and she still was not entirely used to his declarations of servitude. She ran her hand through her hair. She was tired. “And what do you intend to do until morning?”

“Me? Just walking around town. I have not been here since your grandfather’s times” his gaze got lost in the lights through the windows. “Humans change so much, and yet remain the same… I am interested in observing that impermanence here”

Integra understood. He had not been back to his own country since being imprisoned by Abraham. If it had been a personal decision, or an imposition, she was not entirely sure. While she did not feel guilty, given the atrocious crimes that the creature standing in front of her had committed for centuries, she wondered what his own feelings were on servitude. He had once been a prince, a Count, after all…

“You can go. I will try to read through those files and then sleep” she started unmaking the bed. “Just make sure to report back to me before sunrise”.

He smiled and bowed his head to her “Good night, my Master” And with that, he was gone.

Integra sighed and proceeded to sit on the bed to read, but her mind seemed troubled by something she could not pinpoint.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

 

 

Her dreams were plagued by images of her father, soon replaced by images of Richard. She was aware that it was nothing but a nightmare, but she could not stop her own heart rate from speeding, nor shake the desperation to reach her destination as she ran through imaginary corridors and crawled into passages… Even if she knew how it all ended, who it all ended with, she felt the same desperation to reach the deepest part of the house dungeons…

“Master?”

The voice woke her up violently, and she sat up on the bed, slightly disoriented, spilling the pages of the report on the floor. She attempted to compose herself, although her breathing was too heavy to hide what she had been dreaming. Not that it made any sense to; she was sure he looked into her mind often enough. Alucard stared at her with a look she could have sworn showed concern. Well, he had always been the one to be by her side when she woke up from her nightmares. Faster than Walter in many ways, he managed to be by her side during the first months, with a hand outstretched on her bedsheets in case she wanted to grab it. She had, just a couple of times. And even when she had been at boarding school, she had always felt his serene presence nearby, so different from the chaos he unleashed when in battle.

“Master, are you feeling well?”

She shook her head to get rid of any traces of sleep and of the nightmares that came with it. “Yes, Alucard, I am fine. Anything to report?”

"No, everything was peaceful. Still, I was hoping you would join me for breakfast?"

She was about to reply that vampires did not eat breakfast, but then she remembered that she had not eaten since the morning before. Forgetting about basic human needs was easy when your companion did not require them.

She called the room service for tea. It would not be nearly as good as the one Walter made for her, but it would have to do. She felt the need to wash the nightmarish sweat off her body. She stood up and walked to the bathroom, not feeling like giving any kind of explanation to her vampire. It wasn’t needed; their bond usually made mundane explanations unnecessary. She turned around to see him lay on her bed, and granted him a small smile before walking off into the bathroom.

He followed her with his gaze until she closed the door behind her. He had always been fascinated by the way she carried herself in her everyday affair, the way she walked, as if she were carrying an invisible crown on her head. Of course, the royalty of her countenance also implied something else, that she lived as if she were carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. He guessed it was only appropriate, given how her innocence, her childhood, had been shattered the  very same day that he had met her, and she had stood up to the task superbly.

He was, however, slightly worried about the butler. Ever since he had come back from deep slumber, he had been unable to pry into his mind. When he was a young teenager, his mind had been always open, chaotic, filled with passion and arrogance. For the last seven years, the Angel of Death had been closed off to him, with the exception of trivial glimpses. He was not sure if it was a newly acquired technique, or if there was some darker motive for this secretism. Had he wanted to, he could have easily ripped his mind open and found the information he needed, but he had decided against it. Two, no, three, could play at this game. And his Master would soon show everyone, once again, what a brilliant commander she was.

When Integra came out of the bathroom, the vampire still lay on her bed, eyes closed. She knew that he was not asleep, but her gaze lingered on his features. She was aware that he was a beautiful man, or creature. She had known since back when she was twelve and he had been strong enough again to change his appearance from the emaciated corpse she had found. She was also aware of the artifice of this beauty. Either way, she would not deny the fact that she thought him pleasing, but what difference did that make when you are dealing with a centuries-old monster?

She noticed the steaming teacup on the table by the window and sat down to drink it while she finished. Alucard rose to join her,  pulled a chair and sat across her. They sat in silence while she finished her tea. She probably should get something else to eat, but all the traveling had left her with little appetite. Through a gap in her heavily-shut The sun had barely started to come up.

She set the almost empty cup down and looked at him “So, you found absolutely nothing in your search last night?”

“I did not feel any midian presence. At all”

“Do you think they could have passed even under your radar?”

“It is possible, though I have not encountered any enemies capable of that in centuries. There is also the chance that they might not be vampires after all.”

“Do you think the priest is lying?”

“I am not sure. But just in case he is, I would rather accompany you when you get back to him”

“I think I can take care of myself, Alucard.”

“I would of course be able to sense if you are in danger and be there immediately” he interrupted, “but there is no point in my Master endangering herself when I can prevent it”

“I will try not to approach him until you are awake. I still want to look through these documents, I might yet find something to guide us. There is no point in starting a quarrel with him until we have proof”

“You should take the time to see the city, Master. It is as enchanting as ever” he was smiling. She thought that he looked just like any human would have if he had come back to his or her hometown, with pride in his voice. The crimson eyes, of course, betrayed any pretense of humanity.

She felt weird asking him about such a _normal_ thing, but she did anyway “ Have you found it changed?”

Did it even matter? She felt that she should not care, but she wondered. He shrugged “Not more than any other cities. Perhaps less, since they have attempted to keep some areas for the sake of tourism.”

“Do you… “ she gulped “do you ever miss it? You lived most of your life here, after all. And most of your years after that as well”

He laughed softly, with a tint of melancholy “When one lives long enough, attachment to locations become meaningless”

“What about to people?” she raised her eyebrow at him.

He leant back in the chair and stared slightly to the side, lost in thought “Perhaps. But it has been centuries since I have been close to anyone but your family. Or you, for that matter. There is hardly a closest relationship than that of Master and Servant” Her cheeks felt hot, but she blamed it on the warmth of the tea she had just drunk. “Perhaps I should be the one to show you around. Given that I doubt you will find any guides as… acquainted with this place’s history as I am. Really, you would not believe the false things they have said about it. And about myself” He chuckled at that, shaking his head.

It sounded almost fun. Almost like a _date_ , but she decided to ignore that thought. She smiled at him “I would very much enjoy that, yes. Just meet me when you have rested enough.” She grabbed her handbag and put the folder with the information inside, then left the room and the vampire to his sleep.

 

She spent most of the morning walking around town, trying to figure out what was about this case that bothered her so. She enjoyed the narrow stone-paved streets, and the tranquility that seemed to fill the air. She had become too accustomed to either being at the Hellsing manor or in London, where tranquility was one of the few things that were impossible to find. There was a cool breeze, but overall the temperature was nice, she was glad that she had chosen to wear trousers this time, she had secretly hated skirts back in boarding school, and God only knew why she had put herself through wearing one the day before.

It felt strange to walk these streets, knowing that her servant had walked them as well, many years ago. The sun was shining bright on the locals and on the tourists; she could hardly relate it to the mist-filled, tetric atmosphere written down in Dracula. Even the Carpathian mountains and forests surrounding it looked harmless. Not that she took everything in that novel to word, but Alucard had indeed kept the city in a state of terror for centuries. She shuddered. And now that same vampire was sleeping in his coffin in her room. After they had had breakfast together. It was a part of Alucard’s history that was never talked about in the books she had found in the manor, they all revolved around him coming to England and what had been used to make him a servant of the Hellsing lineage. Whatever he had done before, whoever he had been, seemed not to matter to her predecessors.

She sat at a cafe and looked at the papers once more while she ate some deep fried pastry that she had seen a picture of on the menu. All these cases were relegated to the countryside. If these vampires were strong enough to hide their presence from Alucard, why bother to be this subtle, kidnapping only newborn babies? That could hardly be enough to sustain them, even if it was only one of them. And while they were drained, that could be done artificially. She needed to take a look at the corpses. She stood up, left the money on the table, and looked for one of the taxis that were parked around a small plaza. She did not have the time to wait for Alucard. And, anyway, nothing would happen to her in the daylight, And as for humans, that was why she had a gun in her purse as well. Anyway, he could feel her, so if anything happened he would come, even in the middle of the day.

 

She gave some more readings to the pages in the car, until they got back to the small church. She asked the driver to wait for her in English, hoping that he would understand her and he nodded and made no attempt to leave, so she walked into the building.

It was just as dark as it had been at night. She did not like that one bit; if the priest was worried about vampires at all, he would have let as much sunlight in as possible. Perhaps he was not there? But she had seen a small, ran down car by the side. He had to be there, but she knew better than to announce her presence by calling out. She quickly drew the gun from her handbag. A part of her told her she should have made contact with Alucard immediately, but she was already in there and it wouldn’t be the first time she confronted enemies alone. She walked slowly to the center of the church, which she had to pass in order to get to the office. As she approached the altar, she halted. It was empty. No crosses, no ornaments. Nothing. That was the last thing she saw before someone pressed something to her nose and she lost consciousness.

  
It was several hours later when Alucard opened his eyes. He immediately knew something had happened to Integra, but he could still feel her. She was alive. How he had remained unaware of the situation during the day, he was not sure. He rose from his coffin and grinned. Whoever had done this should have known better than to touch his Master, but it was an error that would prove to be entertaining. What a daring, but stupid, attempt to anger him. He laughed and disappeared into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

She felt groggy and nauseous, her eyelids heavy. When Integra tried to open her eyes, there was only pitch black, but she could hear voices around her, footsteps on leaves, and feel the cool air on her arms. It took her a moment to realize that the roughness of her tongue was not just from whatever drug they had used, or from dehydration, but because she had been gagged. She kept on listening, trying to regain her senses fully without alerting whoever had her that she was awake. She would not panic, she had been in far worse. She moved her numb wrists and fingers tentatively to test how tight the ropes were on the chair she was sitting on. Above everything else, she concentrated on her servant. He would find her, and then they would pay.

 

He sensed her as he moved through the shadows. Her call was faint, weakened, but she was there, deep within the mountains. He mused on the strange turns that the world takes; the forests that had once been so familiar to him had become a distant memory. He could still travel them with no problems, but he felt like a stranger. The situation he was dealing with was changing as well. If they could cover her kidnapping from him, why not hide her location as well? This was obviously a trap, but that only spiked his interest. It came to show that it was him they wanted, but, truthfully, they had been wrong to think of Integra Hellsing as a mere prop of this operation.

 

Someone pulled Integra's chin upwards forcefully and took the fabric off her eyes with enough force to leave a red mark. As her eyes adjusted to the moonlit darkness, she recognized a woman standing in front of her, blonde curls falling around a beautiful, doll-like face. A vampire. She bent down until they were at eye-level.

"So, what do we have here?" she put Integra’s glasses back on, allowing her to see better. "You are the little girl who pretends to hold the leash to the Count himself?" The woman fixed her hair and looked around. Integra followed her gaze, distinguishing Father Ciobanu smiling. He had to be human, or else Alucard would have detected him. Why was he helping the female vampire? Why risk going against Hellsing? He could not have known that they would come with no more reinforcement than Alucard himself.

“My name is Anais, I believe you are familiar with me and my late sisters, since it was your ancestor who turned them to dust? The ‘brides of Dracula’?”She ran her index finger under Integra’s jaw. “So this is what the Hellsing line has come to. You know, we don’t even need to kill you. You could submit to me, and we could all take over Europe together”

Integra’s voice came out hoarse and it pained her throat “Never. A Hellsing will never submit to the likes of you” she answered, and spat in her face. The vampire only seemed surprised for a moment,  then wiped the saliva off her face with the back of her hand and filled Integra’s mouth with the rag again, careful not to be bitten.

"Oh, there is something _feisty_ in you. Perhaps I have underestimated you; maybe Dracula is getting some fun from toying with a cute thing as yourself" She raised her hand to slap her, but the blow never came. What happened next was too fast for Integra’s eyes to fully capture; it was a blur of darkness and red that materialized as Alucard pinning the woman to the nearby tree by the neck,

He chuckled “So, it was you. I thought Abraham had exterminated you three”

The priest took a step forward and raised his gun, as if trying to stop him. A mere wave of Alucard’s free hand engulfed him in shadows and held him in place.

“Father, please. This is a matter that I can deal with privately” the female vampire removed his hand from her throat and straightened her dress. She looked adoringly up to him, overcome by emotion “You don’t know how long I have been waiting for this, master. I only escaped Abraham and his lot by using a newly-turned woman as a replacement, and I had to see my sisters die...”

Alucard cut her off “I must admit, that was resourceful of you. Now, why have you done this? Why did you bring me here?”

She seemed taken aback by his dismissiveness. She had expected a different kind of reunion. Nevertheless, she did have a justification to have waited to call him. “While you were gone, I traveled. I did some research and I…” she gulped “I found a way to break the spell. A way to break the Hellsing seal that is holding you prisoner”

He stared at her for a second, then threw his head back and broke into a mad laughter “Is this what this whole charade has been about? You _freeing_ me?” he took a step closer to her “Even if this pathetic spell were to work, who told you that freedom was my desire?”

Anais looked at him as if she didn’t understand, clutching her hand to her chest. “But you must wish for it. How could a Count like yourself want to be chained to such a lowlife? To be forced to destroy your own kind?” she glared at Integra past Alucard’s shoulder.

“Oh, dear Anais, I would be more careful of how you address Sir Hellsing” he chuckled, still seemingly amused by the whole situation “I can see that this has all been some twisted misunderstanding on your part. I truly had not expected you still be alive, much less that you had found some allies, but you should have known better than to summon me this way. However, I can be fair, and for the sake of of our history, and that I can feel that those accusations of bloodshed were only a decoy to bring me here, I may let you go” he ran his fingers through her golden locks, a melancholic expression filling his features “You can flee. But if you do not take this chance, I will leave you to my master's devices. And I have to warn you, she is not merciful" his lips curled into a twisted smile.

The pain in her expression was obvious and she bit her lip while bloody tears welled up in her eyes. She hit his chest with her fists, pain turning into anger “No! I refuse to accept this! You must be under some sort of enchantment from that human!” She tried to dash past Alucard in Integra’s direction, but she was caught by his shadows.

The darkness engulfed most of the clearing of the forest as he strolled towards Integra while his shadows held the other two in place. He removed the rag from her mouth and bent down to untie her. He took his time undoing the ropes from her limbs, lightly brushing his gloved fingertips against the marks that they had left to assess the damage. They would take some days to heal, but physically she was alright. She didn’t speak even when her mouth was free, and he could feel her shake almost imperceptibly. Whether it was from pain, shock, or pure rage, he was not sure.

He moved himself back some feet, just enough to have space to bow and kneel in front of her. He lifted his face and locked her gaze with his, saying in a strong-enough voice for the others to hear him clearly, “Your orders, my master?”

She shut her eyes just for a moment, then reopened them and looked at him, the sternest expression on her face that he had ever seen “Kill them. Kill them both”

He smiled fondly at her “As you command, Sir Hellsing”

A scream of agony was heard when his shadows tore the priest’s limbs and dropped the dead body. “He was not even worth drinking from. A man of God, entering in such a contract with the devil and abusing the trust of my master”.

He moved at inhuman speed again and reappeared in front of the draculina, replacing the shadows with his hand around her neck with enough force to lift her from the ground. The grip from his nails drew blood that ran down his hand. She stared up at him, horror and realization distorting her once beautiful features. Her voice came out raspy between his fingers around her throat "But I, we... we loved you. We _belonged_ to you!"

He chuckled with disdain "But I am _hers_ , and her commands is music to my ears. And you... you are nothing but filth."

The bones gave under his hands, and he twisted neck, discarding the body by the other corpse, without a look back. His eyes were focused on his master. Integra had managed to stand in front of the chair and had looked at the whole ordeal without changing her expression. He walked to her and she raised her eyes to his. She looked immensely tired. Her eyelashes fluttered a couple of times before her eyes closed and she fell forward into his arms.  Integra had indeed proven to be a worthy master, much worthier than any of her predecessors. He looked down on her weary, sleeping face as he lifted her body easily into his arms. He chuckled to himself; such acts of courtesy could be permitted in these circumstances, as much as a she would never allow him if she were conscious. He started walking back into the forest and towards the only place that was close enough to take refuge until his master awoke.

 


End file.
